


Shatter My Shackles, Let Me Fly Free

by tothebatcave53



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bird/Human Hybrids, Captivity, Depression, M/M, Victor and Yuuri both have wings in this fic, but has the same deep meaning to the characters as it does in canon, falling in love despite difficult circumstances, happy endings, human/animal hybrid ownership, singing takes the place of skating in this fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2019-08-22 10:53:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16596512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tothebatcave53/pseuds/tothebatcave53
Summary: As a songbird, you spend your days performing for your owners, singing and flashing your feathers to make other humans jealous. Victor finds it loathsome but he's content enough. He's given everything he desires, yet he misses the feeling of the wind in his feathers and the open sky around him.And then Yuuri comes into his life, the most beautiful creature Victor has ever seen. Life is suddenly surprising again, each day with Yuuri a new adventure even if they can only look at the sky from behind their cage bars. Victor's not lonely anymore.Until one day, Victor's rescued by a group of activists. The only problem is that Yuuri's left behind. Now Victor must find his way back to bring Yuuri with him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my fic for the victuri-big-bang! Its something I've wanted to write for quite some time and now have finally done so!  
> Art for this fic is done by the amazing [mferret9](http://mferret9.tumblr.com/) who was my partner for this bang and has been so supportive and patient with me as I struggled to get this fic even close to finished enough to post the first chapters by our due date.

The stage lights lower around them signaling a hush among the crowd. From his perch Victor watches, bored. All buyer’s galas are the same, filled with stuffy rich humans that drag around their pets draped in heavy fabrics and jewels. Each hopes to stand out, outshine their neighbors and friends, show up their rivals. Victor has seen it all before and see them all for what they are. 

Selfish.

Fake.

Pathetic.

The buy’s gala hold no interest for Victor until the songbird that takes the stage is pulled up to his perch. It’s the first time that Victor sees him and he can’t look away, not even if he wanted to.

He sits atop a silver perch. The black and red silks draped over his body make his already pale skin glow with an unearthly beauty. Jewels are woven into his feathers, cheap trinkets that aim to make this songbird special but he is already so beautiful that he needs no adornments. 

Victor is smitten before the performance even begins and then the songbird begins to sing.

Words carry through the arena, gentle notes enchanting those that have gathered to listen to his song. They are enthralled at the delicate melody spun from between soft lips and growing from broken feelings. 

Victor can feel his heart beat loud in his ears, hard against his ribs as he listens, entranced. Time slows to a crawl as the notes wrap around him in a way that they haven’t in years, the song making Victor’s own desire to sing flare to life with a flame that he had feared to have gone out years ago. It isn’t until the song has finished, the songbird’s final notes wavering through the air to touch his very soul that Victor realizes there are tears  falling against his cheeks.

The humans around them clamor to call out bids in the following silence, their greedy hands reaching for their wallets and checkbooks. They struggle for the highest bid, a game to own the most beautiful piece of living art in the building. 

Victor can only watch, longing in his gaze as the songbird turns. Their eyes meet from across the room, a soft honey brown staring back into Victor’s, sad and empty. A new wave of tears rolls down Victor’s cheeks as those eyes of the songbird close in resignation, led away back into his cage with the shouts of selfish humans following him. Never has Victor longed to protect another, to share some sort of happiness with a creature that looks so broken down and defeated.

Beside him a man’s voice calls out a number so obscene in its figure that it quiets the crowd with bitter disappointment and silent vows of revenge purchases. Victor’s own heart soars as high as the clouds he once touched with his wing tips.

“Come along Vitya.”

A chain clips to his ankle and Victor stretches his wings, shaking them out before he flutters from his golden perch where he has spent most of the afternoon, still as a statue so that humans around him could fawn over his beauty and marvel at his master’s wealth. Victor cares little for the affairs of the wealthy but as he looks back at the young bird being loaded into a transport cage, he has never been so grateful to his owners deep pockets and desire to only own the best that can be purchased in life.

Victor follows his owner through the crowded arena, the crowd giving them a wide berth. They no longer marvel at Victor’s pale silver feathers but glower with jealousy. Victor has been the most coveted desire of all who shop the gala for the most exotic pets to show off in their luxury homes, filled with fake guests that only come to judge their own wealth against another's. Now this man, Victor’s owner, owns the two most beautiful songbirds to ever grace the stage auction. He may care little for those around him but it is that selfish petty desire of humans that will allow Victor to meet the sad bird that has stolen his heart with one soft call of his voice.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My internet has been completely gone so there has been quite a delay in posting this fic. It still isn't fixed so... This fic is coming, just need internet that lasts for more than two seconds.   
> Enjoy the second chapter! <3

“You performed beautifully last night,” Victor says as he lands on the perch next to the new songbird. 

Under the bright morning sun Victor’s feathers shimmer like pure silver, as they should since he had spent all morning preening and cleaning himself. The moon hadn’t even started to set when he’d risen, determined to make a lasting impression on the new songbird. Blame it on animal instincts but Victor would die if he didn’t stand out with their first official meeting.

“What?” Startled brown eyes meet Victor’s blue but instead of them sweeping up and down with longing or impressed desire, they only stare back at Victor with fear.

“At the gala,” Victor clarifies, smiling only to watch the smaller bird crumple into himself. Normally a beautiful performance like the one this songbird had given, one that another bird felt the need to compliment, was something to be proud of. Victor had given hundreds of performances that had others flocking to him with warm chirps of admiration but this seems to have the opposite effect.

“Thank you, but it really wasn’t anything that impressive.”

Victor shuffles back as the other spreads his wings and takes off in a flurry of black feathers. Victor is left sitting, blinking in confusion and disappointment as the beautiful black bird flies higher up. He settles on a perch overlooking the massive garden and trees, the highest perch in their now shared coop. 

It is only with the sunlight changing angles that Victor notices the silver chain looped around his newest guests ankle. It drops down to the ground, locked tightly in place. Looking back up, Victor watches as the other pushes his face into the high collar of his sweater, eyes trained on the outside. He radiates an air of sadness that Victor feels somehow personally responsible for.

He didn’t even learn his new coop-mates name.

 

*******

 

“My names Victor,” Victor tries the next morning. He shakes his wings out, the nerves of rejection nagging in the back of his mind after his failure to talk to his new coop-mate at all yesterday. 

They’re sitting at the edge of their food plate, overflowing with their morning fruits. The cherries must be the songbirds favorite because red juice stains his lips as he quietly bites into the soft berry flesh. They also happen to be Victor’s favorite but he decides that allowing the other to gorge himself on his favorite makes him a good host in their new shared space and a even better potential future mate.

“Oh… I, uh, know that. All songbirds know you; your voice is ethereal. You’re a legend.”

Victor cooes at the unexpected praise, his feathers ruffling with pleasure. Never before as a compliment sounded so sweet, so sincere. The flush that spreads across the songbird’s cheeks makes it all the more endearing. When nothing follows though, Victor prompts further. “May I know your name?”

The blush spreads further along the exposed skin of his throat and Victor’s tail feathers spread in a grand display of silver, trying to impress the cute bird across from him.

“It’s Yuuri.”

“Yuuri,” Victor tries out, enjoying the feel of the name as it rolls off his tongue. “What a beautiful name.”

Yuuri has become as red as the cherries he’s eating and stuffs another into his mouth to avoid having to speak further.

“It’s nice to meet you, officially,” Victor says, watching every twist and twitch of Yuuri’s feathers. “I hope I didn’t offend you yesterday; I was just so awed by your voice and the music you created.”

“It’s not- It wasn’t anything great,” Yuuri mumbles. “It could have been any songbird up there, it wasn’t me.”

Victor sits back to really look at the songbird sitting next to him. Yuuri is twitching with nerves, his feathers slightly puffed up to make himself larger and intimidating though the slight shake of his fingers as he pushes around the fruit gives him away. It seems that Yuuri’s words aren’t spoken from a humble place but that he actually seems to believe he’s inadequate. Someone who can rival Victor’s own talents shrinks from praise that should lift up such a gifted creature. 

“When you sang,” Victor says softly, reaching out to brush his fingers along Yuuri’s arm, trailing to the downy feathers around his wrist. “You sang from your soul, you created music with your whole being, not just your voice. That’s what made you beautiful Yuuri, that’s why all the humans were tripping over themselves with desire. You have something no one else could ever possess, no matter how hard they try. You gave yourself up to your song and made everyone feel what you were feeling. No one could look away, no one would ever want to.”

Yuuri stills under his touch, quiet and for a moment Victor is afraid he’s overstepped with this bird he’s hardly gotten to know yet but then Yuuri raises his eyes, a small spark there that was absent before. He finally looks at Victor, a small look of wonder playing over his features. 

“No ones-” Yuuri swallows thickly. “No one’s ever saw more than just some creature they can use to entertain their guests.”

“Just because they put a chain around you doesn’t mean they own you, not if you don’t allow them. When you sing, what you perform with your everything and the emotion you make those around you feeling because of it, that belongs only to you.”

Yuuri shivers under Victor’s fingertips again but just when Victor starts to pull back, afraid he’s overstepped too far Yuuri’s fingers gently curl up to meet his and keep him close. 

“Thank you.”

Victor smiles at the soft but sincere words. “I mean every word,” he promises.


End file.
